New data give clearer picture of Higgs boson

HIGGS SLEUTHS Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are using their new higher-energy data to study the Higgs boson. This visualization of the ATLAS experiment shows an event possibly containing a Higgs boson produced in combination with two top quarks, one of many new processes scientists are looking for.

CERN

CHICAGO — It’s a Higgs boson bonanza for particle physicists, who are capitalizing on the newest data from the Large Hadron Collider to delve more deeply into the particle’s properties. Scientists are keeping a keen eye out for any deviations from the standard model of particle physics, the overarching theory that describes elementary particles and their interactions.

The Higgs boson’s discovery in 2012 (SN: 7/28/12, p.5) filled in the last remaining piece of the standard model, helping to explain how elementary particles obtain their mass. With the newest data from the LHC, near Geneva, scientists have nailed down the Higgs’ properties at the LHC’s newly boosted energy. The results “strengthen the identity card of the Higgs,” says Tiziano Camporesi, spokesperson for CMS, one of the LHC experiments. Camporesi

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